"Looking at the nature of the incident, it is clear that the murder was preplanned," Dang Police Chief Thakur Prasad Gyawali. [break]
Dhital, who was the chairman of Radio Tulsipur FM, was shot dead some 10 km from south of Tulsipur bazaar in Dang on Thursday.
According to Gyawali, the murder could have been planned at least a couple of days ago.
Police say they are still in the dark about the motive behind the murder and that´s posing difficulties in arresting the murders.
"He had not received any threat and we are yet to know the reasons behind the crime," he said adding, "We are trying hard to find out the motives."
The police said the murder might have been committed by professional criminals. "From the nature and modus operandi of the murder, we think it was committed by some criminal groups," Gyawali said.
Rights activists, media persons and entrepreneurs have been enraged at the police for their failure to know anything about the murder even after two days of the murder.
But police claimed they are investigating the incident and trying hard to arrest the criminals.
The police investigation team was in the incident site on Saturday. Armed Police Force (APF) personnel have also been mobilized to hunt the murderers.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), which visited the incident site, also reached a conclusion that the murder was committed by some criminal group. The delegation returned to Kathmandu Saturday. The FNJ team had held meetings with media persons, entrepreneurs, professionals and the police.
"He was also a contractor. So we suspect that there might have been the hands of his rivals," said FNJ team coordinator Poshan KC.
On Saturday, mediapersons staged a demonstration demanding immediate arrest of the murderers. Four Dang-based dailies left the editorial section blank on Saturday as a mark of protest against the failure of the police to nab the murderers. Local FM radios played somber music before broadcasting news.
Radio Tulsipur FM has decided not to broadcast any entertaining and musical programs for 13 days.
RSF demands full probe
KATHMANDU: Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has demanded a full investigation into the killing of media entrepreneur Devi Prasad Dhital.
Issuing a press release, the global press freedom organization said it is appalled by the murder in cold blood of Devi Prasad Dhital, director of Tulsipur FM.
"We call on local and national authorities to identify sufficient police resources to interrogate the suspects as soon as possible and conduct a full investigation into this murder. Those who decided to silence the director of FM Tulsipur know the influence of Nepali community radios which play a fundamental role in the dissemination of information in the country," the release added.
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